On July 26, 1926, the Durham Bulls’ El Toro Park was dedicated. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first Commissioner of Baseball, stole the show that day by riding onto the field on the team mascot, a real bull. Governor Angus McLean was also on hand for the festivities. The park was the home field for the Bulls, a local class-D farm team for the Cincinnati Reds.
Topics Related to This Day in North Carolina History
On July 26, 1962, Thomas Purcell Jr. demonstrated FlightSail at Lake Waccamaw.
The Columbus County flight was the first water-based use of the glider that had been adapted by Purcell from technology created by aviation pioneer Francis Rogallo. The aircraft was a single seat open cockpit parasol-winged glider with skids to facilitate water takeoffs and landings.
On July 26, 1863, a skirmish took place between local Confederate forces and a Union expedition led by Major General John G. Foster at Potecasi Creek in Hertford County. Foster’s troops, nearly 1,200 men, were ordered to destroy the Confederate rail junction at Weldon.
On July 25, 1960, Greensboro lunch counters opened to sitting customers of all races for the first time. The event was the culmination of a brief and intense desegregation campaign by black activists that sparked similar actions throughout the country.
On July 25, 1729, North Carolina became a royal colony when the Lords Proprietors sold the colony to King George II.
On July 25, 1780, Major General Horatio Gates assumed direct command of the American forces in the Southern Military Department at their campsite on the Deep River in Randolph County.
Born in 1727 or 1728 in England, Gates served in the British army before settling in the colonies. In 1775, he volunteered for the Continental Army and served as a staff officer before receiving field command.
On July 24, 1894, Kenneth Royall, the last United States Secretary of War and the first Secretary of the Army, was born in Goldsboro.
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1917, Royall joined the Army. He served in France from August 1918 until February 1919. At that time, Royall returned to Goldsboro and began practicing law.
On July 24, 1874, poet John Charles McNeill was born in Wagram. In October 1905, McNeill won first place in the competition for the inaugural Patterson Cup, the first literary contest held in North Carolina, earning him the unofficial title of North Carolina's Poet Laureate. McNeill died at age 33.
On July 24, 1924, Leo Haid, abbot and founder of Belmont Abbey, died.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1849 as Michael Hite, he attended school at the nearby Benedictine abbey. Haid entered the order as a novice in 1868 and assumed the religious name Leo. Formal vows as a monk and priest followed four years later. He worked as a teacher and chaplain until 1885, when the Church promoted him to the abbacy of Maryhelp in North Carolina.
On July 23, 1868, western North Carolina’s first Universalist congregation was organized in Haywood County after traveling preacher Benjamin F. Strain converted a handful of citizens.
Universalists, also known as Hell Redemptionists, were a denomination whose beliefs were based on a benevolent God and salvation as opposed to damnation.